(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Bolivian president Evo Morales remains highly popular but has lost some support, according to a poll by Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado published in La Razón. 56 per cent of respondents approve of the president’s performance, down six points since November.
(Angus Reid Global Monitor) – Bolivian president Evo Morales remains highly popular but has lost some support, according to a poll by Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado published in La Razón. 56 per cent of respondents approve of the president’s performance, down six points since November.
Morales—an indigenous leader and former coca-leaf farmer—won the December 2005 presidential election as the candidate for the Movement to Socialism (MAS), with 53.7 per cent of the vote. He officially took over as Bolivia’s head of state in January 2006.
Morales’s tenure has been focused on "re-founding" Bolivia through a new constitution. In November 2007, a draft constitution was approved with the support of all pro-government National Constituent Assembly members. Opposition parties boycotted the vote. The proposed draft included articles that allow for consecutive presidential re-election, the creation of 36 autonomous indigenous communities, and tighter government controls over private media outlets.
Last year, the departments of Santa Cruz, Beni, Pando and Tarija—all led by politicians opposed to Morales—held votes in an effort to increase their autonomy within Bolivia, directly defying articles in the new constitution. In response to the non-binding referendums, Morales enacted a law that scheduled a recall vote on himself, Bolivian vice-president Álvaro García Linera, and the country’s nine governors or "departmental prefects" in August. The president and vice-president were ratified by more than 60 per cent of the participating voters.
On Oct. 21, the discussions between the president and the departmental prefects finally ended with a revamped version of the constitution and a decision to hold a referendum to ratify the new body of law on Jan. 25, 2009. The new draft includes a bill of rights and an entire chapter dedicated to Bolivia’s 36 indigenous nations. It also puts the economy in the hands of the state, limits landholdings, redistributes revenues from gas fields in the eastern lowlands to the country’s poorer areas, and includes a compromise that allows the current president to seek only one additional five-year term.
On Jan. 5, the president announced the launching of a state-run daily, claiming that domestic media holds an "anti-government" bias. Morales declared: "The state’s going to have its own newspaper and I’ve told the media team that we should launch it on Jan. 22."
Polling Data
Do you approve or disapprove of Evo Morales’s performance as president?
|
|
Dec. 2008 |
Nov. 2008 |
Jul. 2008 |
|
Approve |
56% |
62% |
59% |
|
Disapprove |
41% |
34% |
37% |
Source: Ipsos, Apoyo, Opinión y Mercado / La Razón
Methodology: Interviews with 1,038 Bolivian adults in La Paz, El Alto, Cochabamba and Santa Cruz, conducted from Dec. 6 to Dec. 16, 2008. Margin of error is 3.1 per cent.
